Regular Expressions 101

Group 1(<!(--(?:[^-]|-(?!->))*?--)>)

<!the literal text <!

Group 2(--(?:[^-]|-(?!->))*?--)

--the literal text --

Non-Capturing Group(?:[^-]|-(?!->))*?

*?repeats the group contents below any number of times:

1st Alternative[^-]

Negated Character Class[^-]

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

2nd Alternative-(?!->)

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

Negative Lookahead(?!->)

->the literal text ->

--the literal text --

>the literal > (62₁₀ / 76₈ / 3E₁₆)

Negative Lookahead(?!((?!<%--)[\s\S])*?--%>)

Group 3((?!<%--)[\s\S])*?

*?repeats the group contents below any number of times:

Negative Lookahead(?!<%--)

<%--the literal text <%--

Character Class[\s\S]

\sany whitespace character

\Sany non-whitespace character

--%>the literal text --%>

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

(<!(--(?:[^-]|-(?!->))*?--)>)(?!((?!<%--)[\s\S])*?--%>)

New

Condition: 1 : <!-- normal HTML comment -->

Codition: 2 <%-- normal JSP comment 
     <!-- inside html comment here -->
      other comment stuff
 <!-- another inside html comment here -->
--%>
Condition: 1 : <!-- normal HTML comment -->

Substitution

<%$2%>